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Energy Procedia 75 (2015) 423 – 429

The 7th International Conference on Applied Energy – ICAE2015

A Concentrating Solar Power prototype for validating a

new Fresnel-based plant design
Ricardo Muñoza*, José M. Martínez-Valb, Rubén Abbasb, Javier Muñoz-Antónb,
Antonio Rovirac, Maria J. Montesc
a
OHL Industrial, Torre Espacio. Paseo de la Castellana, 259 D, 28046, Madrid, Spain
b
Technical University of Madrid, José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, 28006, Madrid, Spain
c
Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Juan del Rosal 14, 28040, Madrid, Spain

Abstract

A prototype of adequate scale is being built in the south campus of the Technical University of Madrid (in
Getafe, Spain) to validate a number of innovations of a new Advanced Linear Fresnel Reflector featured
by:
- A modular concept of receiver unit made of several tubes in a multi-pass configuration, with a
size that can be made at a workshop or a factory, transported by ordinary trucks to the plant site,
and assembled into the supporting structure in a simple way with a moving crane.
- A set of mirrors with the proper curvature, made of originally flat mirrors which are bent to the
required distortion
- A newly developed focusing system, which will also be part of the supporting structure of the
mirrors.
- The use of a gas as heat carrier fluid, notably CO2, at a working pressure close to 10 MPa.
- A number of collecting tubes which will gather the outlets of the 8 receiver modules to send it to
an air-cooler for restoring the gas temperature to the value at the beginning of the thermal circuit,
which includes a gas blower (or compressor-circulator) for restoring the pressure level.

The purpose is to minimize the amount of total mass of the different materials used in the capture of solar
thermal power, which is sent to the power block for its valuation. It is expected to provide a significant
reduction of costs compared to the complexity of the current methods to capture high temperature solar
energy.
In two years, the goal is to develop this type of solar field up to industrial and commercial scale using the
prototype as a guarantee for that quest.
© 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
© 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Selection
Peer-reviewand/or peer-review of
under responsibility under responsibility
Applied of ICAE
Energy Innovation Institute
Keywords: Concentrating solar power; Linear Fresnel collectors; Prototype; Innovations

1876-6102 © 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of Applied Energy Innovation Institute
doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2015.07.409
424 Ricardo Muñoz et al. / Energy Procedia 75 (2015) 423 – 429

Nomenclature
SF Solar Field
DNI Direct Normal Irradiance
CSP Concentrated Solar Power
HCF Heat carrier fluid
CT Central Tower
PTC Parabolic Trough Collector
LFR Linear Fresnel Reflector
TES Thermal Energy Storage
PB Power Block

1. Introduction

Solar Thermal Energy for electricity generation is set up by the integration of a Solar Field (SF)
and a Power Block (PB), featured by a thermodynamic cycle and some ancillary systems. In the
interconnection between those blocks a third component can be placed: Thermal Energy Storage (TES),
which allows to manage the plant load according to the demand, and extend the electric supply beyond
the sunset.
Despite the higher capital cost than conventional technologies, it is worth pointing out that no
fuel is needed to run a CSP plant, because energy is provided by solar radiation. This advantage may be
obvious in the environmental aspect, but it is also a benefit regarding long-term saving and logistics, as it
makes it easier to build them in remote sites like deserts with the best Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI). In
turn, the size of the Solar Field must be increased proportionally to the size of the TES which is not an
essential component of the plant but should be considered as such for the sake of operating the plant
without instant solar energy. Thus, the cost of electricity generated by CSP plants mainly depends on the
investment cost of the SF. On the contrary, the technology of the PB is, to some extent, mature and
presents clear economies of scale. Nevertheless, specific cycles have been proposed to meet better the
most convenient working points of the CSP solar heat, particularly, its temperature range and working
pressure.
Therefore, it is necessary to reduce the cost of the SF with a much lower investment than those
of the current technologies, where Parabolic Trough technology (PTC) is the reference.
A previous systemic approach [1] was carried out to identify the most promising line for cost
reduction, taking into account the essential features of the different structures of the SF. PTC has the
longest receiver and the shortest distance from the mirror to the receiver tube. On the contrary, Central
Tower (CT) conveys the shortest length of the receiver, which in turn is located very close to the PB. It
also conveys the longest distance from mirrors to receivers, and this implies a strong limitation in the
power level per tower unit, because focusing onto the receiver becomes very inefficient with longer
distances. The Linear Fresnel Reflector (LFR) is in the middle of that range. The distance between mirror
and receiver is around 12 m, while it is 2 m for PTC and 200 m for towers. Regarding the receiver size, a
50 MWe PTC plant (without TES) would need almost 50 km of receiver tubes (and associated mirrors
covering around 300,000 m2) with an absorber area of 3,000 m2 which implies a concentration factor of
100. A CT plant would need a 160 m tall and 20 m wide tower, with a total mirror surface close to the
 Ricardo Muñoz et al. / Energy Procedia 75 (2015) 423 – 429 425

previous value and a receiver surface close to 300 m2, which conveys a concentration factor of 1,000.
Finally, a LFR plant will have around 20 km of receiver tubes, presenting a receiver surface of 6,000 m2,
with a mirror surface around 330,000 m2, which means a concentration factor of 55. For the working
temperatures such those that are reached in CSP (typically below 550ºC), where the heat absorption
efficiency is high enough [2], a concentration factor of 55 is sufficient, while the solar field architecture
can be simpler, lighter and cheaper. Also, LFR presents more degrees of freedom in the geometry
definition and the materials to be used. This could be either an advantage or a drawback: should a
decision be mistaken, that option will likely be very far from the optimum, and cost reduction would not
be meaningful.

Fig. 1. A 3D view of the mirror array of the prototype & receiver supporting

An account of the total mass of the materials used in each SF model was done, in relation to
their essential features. Current PTC has a linear power density in nominal conditions ranging between 4
and 5 kWth/m, having a pending weigh of up to 200 kg/m plus some additional masses for the fixed part
and foundations. If all the mass is accounted for in equivalent economic terms, all materials such as
construction steel, concrete and mirrors can be modeled in cost-equivalent mass, with conversion factors
from a given type of materials to the reference one, which should be something as an average of the
materials involved. With a set of conversion factors, it is found that we need more than 300 kg per meter
in each PTC collector, which can be expressed in terms of mass per unit of thermal power, which would
be around 75 kg/kWth. This refers to the nominal operation, but there is another feature of CSP that must
be accounted for, namely, the daily and seasonal variations of solar radiation intensity as it is received on
the mirrors of the SF. If an average value of the linear power density is used for qualifying the plant,
previous values change to 2,5 through 3,5 kWth/m, and correspondingly we obtain a range of mass of 80
through 120 kg/kWth.
Our analyses [3-5] identified Fresnel longitudinal collectors as the type of solar radiation
concentrator with the best performance/cost ratio for the range of working conditions to power a standard
Rankine cycle; this is because a radiation level of 40 kWth / m2 is good for that goal. Meanwhile, PTC
reaches up to 80 kWth / m2 and CT can arrive to 300 kWth / m2, which goes far from the optimum in terms
of global performance coming from solar energy.
Moreover, higher concentrations, such as those obtained with a central receiver, cause thermal-
mechanical stress on the receiver, which reduces its useful lifetime and jeopardizes the plant reliability.
426 Ricardo Muñoz et al. / Energy Procedia 75 (2015) 423 – 429

In this paper, an Advanced LFR-based prototype is presented and a 3D scheme is depicted in

figure 1. Its main innovations are briefly explained afterwards, aiming to improve thermal performance
and to reduce construction costs. In order to do that, a task force has been put in operation, joining
synergies between the Research Group on Thermal Energy Systems of the Technical University of
Madrid (UPM, embodying some professors from UNED University, also in Spain) and OHL Industrial,
the industrial division of OHL Group, a large corporation mainly acting in the fields of Civil Works and
Concessions internationally.

2. Overall description of the prototype

Fig. 2. A 3D view of the mirror array of the prototype & receiver supporting structures

Solar field components need new materials for getting better cost/performance results, but the
main dependence is the system morphology. Linear Fresnel has the lowest capital cost in the solar field,
which can give sense to the Thermal Energy Storage (it needs a solar multiple which in the case of TCP
technology, increase the LCOE).
The project will rely on gases, such as HCF, especially CO2 and air; although air has some
problems related to oxidation. On the contrary, CO2 is an inert gas without any safety problem until
reaching volume concentrations in the air above 8%, with very positive heat transfer features at high
operational pressure levels. High P (higher than 75 bar) is needed for:
- High values of the heat transfer convection coefficient
- Low pressure drop values and therefore low values in pumping power
A positive previous experience in thermal performance using CO 2 in parabolic through collectors was
accomplished by the UPM team; however, this experience was negative regarding gas leakage through
rotating joints [6]. This problem could be completely avoided in brazed multi-tube receivers, with free
dilatation, as the ones explained hereafter.
Figure 2 shows the layout of the plant, which will work with CO2.
The mirror field is made of 12 stripes of 32 meters long each. Each mirror is 1.36 meters wide, except the
latter which is wider since the chosen embodiment has been East-West instead of North-South.
Each reflecting module is composed of 4 individual mirrors, and the corresponding pillars have
8.30 meters of separation (between axes). A particular rotating device with a smart lock structure placed
 Ricardo Muñoz et al. / Energy Procedia 75 (2015) 423 – 429 427

on top of each pillar of the series which allows to follow a very simple procedure to fix the mirrors on the
rotating structure without needing a crane because each part of the system is lighter than 50 kg and can be
safely and easily managed by two workers. The main beam of the mirror frame is just an 8.20 meters long
square hollow tube, and it is assembled to the outer frame of the mirror, which is a simple rib made of
four pieces connected in the corners. They are also very light because they do not have a supporting
function. The real support is done by the ends of the main beam as it goes into the rotating cap of each
pillar plus a special innovation depicted in figure 3, which is made of two arms connected to a rotating
grip placed in the middle of each of the long ribs of the mirror frame. Those arms come vertically from
below, where a multi-cycle array rotates at the same speed as the mirrors; the arms being vertically fixed
to the lower cycle array, although each arm tip rotates around an axis. So, the mirror does not need a very
robust and heavy supporting structure rotating on two points in the ends of the main beam, because each
mirror is kept in its middle cross section by a moveable system which keeps the mirror inclination just in
the angle required for a perfect focusing on the receiver central line.

Fig. 3. Cycle system for structural support of the mirrors and sun tracking

Although all mirrors rotate at the same speed when they track the Sun, and therefore a unique
cycle system would be enough to move all the mirrors; in this prototype it has been decided to use two
different cycle systems, to improve reliability and operational availability (the system could work only
with half the mirrors).
Receivers are placed on top of two upper beams which are supported by transversal arches. The
separation between the arches faces is 12 meters, and two independent receivers are placed in this length.
Concentrated radiation across the receiver is not uniform, with a lower intensity in the outermost strips
and the maximum value in the central axis, where radiation can reach over 55 kW/m2. If those radiation
beams are absorbed in a single tube, entropy increases: the higher the intensity is, the higher the exergy is.
Hence, it is advisable to absorb the impinging radiation in several parallel tubes laid inside the receiver
box. Receivers selected for the prototype will be composed by a specific rack of tubes. The flow of all
receivers, as depicted in figure 2, merges into a single stream headed to the air-cooler, where the absorbed
heat is rejected into the atmospheric air. An auxiliary system compensates the variations suffered by the
CO2 pressure. Once cooled to the required temperature, the gas flows into a blower which gives the thrust
to overcome the pressure loss along the full circuit.
The control system will have two fundamental parts: sun tracking and thermal performance. The
former is done based on astronomical data and experimental verification, and it actuates on the tilt of the
mirrors, which is governed by the cycle system. Additionally, the thermal control takes the map of
temperatures and mass flows as main input, and acts on the fine control valves in order to reduce or to
428 Ricardo Muñoz et al. / Energy Procedia 75 (2015) 423 – 429

increase the pressure loss in the corresponding branch of the circuit, so that the temperature map
coincides with the sought values. Instrumentation also includes the temperature of the tubes in some
specific points, as well as information on the pressure inside the receiver box, which can be evacuated by
a vacuum pump if that option is selected. The receiver box is reinforced to withstand such a pressure
difference.

3. Expected results

A broad range of new results is expected almost in every part of the Solar Field under
investigation, from the mirror array and mirror tracking system to validation of CO2 as HCF with LFR, as
well as assessing the behavior of different coatings as far as absorbing solar radiation is concerned.
The thermal output of the prototype will be around 400 kW th, distributed in several receivers.
The gas will aim a temperature close to 500ºC. Maximum efficiency in a receiver is expected to reach
85%, mainly for gas flows coming in at 150 ºC and going out at 400ºC, but the efficiency will remain
over 80% for the other cases with inlet temperature of 250ºC and outlet temperature of 500ºC (which will
have an exergy efficiency higher than that of lower temperature cases).
Other expected results should be kept confidential within the task team, until they are processed
by a larger team to prepare the design of the commercial plant that should contribute to make CSP really
competitive with the classical energy sources. In order to achieve that goal, we rely on a number of
innovations such as:
- mirrors truly rotate around axes that correspond to the central line of the mirror surface, and so,
it is avoided any additional optical errors produced by the eccentricity of the axes
- mirror width is limited by the maximum lateral drift that it is admitted when the sun position
changes from the zenith to sunset, what is given by a own theorem [3]
- receiver unit is designed for being very short, what implies a very fast feedback from the control
system. This is possible by selecting an optimum L/D pipe aspect ratio [4]

Acknowledgements

It is an honor to declare that the construction of the prototype is done with the financial support of the
Financial Mechanisms of the European Economic Area, EEA-Grants 2nd Call, managed by CDTI
(Spain), project number IDI-20140942.

References
[1] H.H. Sait, J.M.Martinez-Val et al., “Fresnel-based modular solar fields for performance/cost optimization in solar thermal
power plants: a comparison with Parabolic Trough Collectors”. Accepted for publication in Applied Energy. (2014).
[2] Javier Muñoz, Jose M. Martinez-Val, Alberto Ramos, Thermal regimes in solar-thermal linear collectors, Solar Energy,
Volume 85, Issue 5, May 2011, Pages 857-870, ISSN 0038-092X
[3] R. Abbas, M.J. Montes, M. Piera, J.M. Martínez-Val, Solar radiation concentration features in Linear Fresnel Reflector
arrays, Energy Conversion and Management, Volume 54, Issue 1, February 2012, Pages 133-144, ISSN 0196-8904.
[4] R. Abbas, J. Muñoz-Anton, J.M. Martínez-Val, Steady-state thermal analysis of an innovative receiver for linear Fresnel
reflectors, Applied Energy, Volume 92, April 2012, Pages 503-515, ISSN 0306-2619.
[5] R. Abbas and J.M. Martínez-Val. Analytic optical design of linear fresnel collectors with variable widths and shifts of
mirrors. Renewable Energy, 75(0):81 – 92, 2015. ISSN 0960-1481.
[6] J. Muñoz-Anton, M. Biencinto, E. Zarza, L.E. Díez, Theoretical basis and experimental facility for parabolic trough
collectors at high temperature using gas as heat transfer fluid, Applied Energy, Volume 135, 15 December 2014, Pages 373-381,
ISSN 0306-2619.
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Biography
Ricardo Muñoz is in charge of Research, Development and Innovation and Corporate
Social Responsibility in OHL Industrial. He has a Higher Degree in Industrial
Engineering and two Master’s Degrees: MBA in Energy, Industry and Environment and
another Master on Renewable Energies. Currently, he is enrolled for Ph.D. studies in
Technical University of Madrid (UPM).